There are two people that I know, and the two of them wanted to learn graphic designing. The first one said "I will learn it." But for almost 2 years, he is still saying "I will learn it." The second one said "by 4 month, I should be able to complete an online course in basic graphic designing." The second one attached a deadline to his dream, and it created a sense of responsibility within him to take the required step. Within 4 months, he already finished the course and added it to his portfolio of skills. He was able to accomplish it simply because he placed a deadline to his dream, and it created a sense of urgency for him to act.
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It is true that dreams are powerful, because they can inspire hope, give life a direction, and even ignite ambition. But having a dream without having a deadline to it will just make it feel like it is a mere wish. It often feels good to imagine success, and to imagine how your life will turn out to be. But if this does not include a timeline, then there will be nothing to create the sense of urgency for you to act fast. This is why your dreams need to come with a deadline. This is what will transform if from just a wish or just an idea into a commitment and responsibility. Just to let you know; ideas can also be affected by the passage of time. So if you delay to act on yours, you may discover that it has been rendered invalid or obsolete by the passage of time.
When you put deadline, your mindset will shift from "someday" to "this particular day." The former is actually dangerous because there is no pressure attached to it, and it will make you docile. While the latter is what makes you to be on your toes and act. It also makes you not to postpone what you should have done, because you know there is no much time left, and you have a deadline to beat. When you assign a date to your dream, you will create accountability for yourself. This forces you to plan, prioritise your actions, and then track your progress. It also pushes you towards prompt actions, which is needed for the actualization of success.
Deadlines also have ways of creating focus. Without them, you may discover that your energy is scattered between too many distractors. In fact, you might even spend more time talking about the dream than taking actions. But when you have a deadline to beat, it will act like a check, and will also help you to evaluate your daily choices. For example, if you have a goal to complete a course within 4 months, you will begin to ask yourself these questions; "will this step take you closer to hit the 4-month deadline, or away from it?"
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You will be surprised how some people fear deadlines because they are scared of failure. They may even feel that if they do not achieve their goals by the set date, that it means they are incapable or that they are failure. But what they fail to understand is that deadline is not a final verdict, rather it is a tool that should be wielded correctly. Even if you missed your deadline, at least you have gained clarity, and you now know what works for you and what does not. It will help you to re-strategize, and then set new timeline. Without having a deadline, there will be nothing to give you a clear feedback. And you cannot measure success, because there is no targeted date to measure it against.
It is worthy to note that deadline instills discipline into you. If you are committed to achieve something within a particular time frame, you will learn how to manage your time, energy, and resources in a better way. You will even see yourself breaking larger tasks into little tasks in order to achieve them. For example, if you want to read your textbook in 2 months, you can break it into chapters; maybe 1 chapter daily. By the end of 2 months, you must have completed it. So you are not really bothered about the end-result, but you are concerned about the process, which is reading a chapter daily. It is the deadline that you set that makes you to figure out a way to convert imagination into structure.
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